UNION TOWNSHIP -- A man accused of sexually assaulting a young girl was sentenced today to probation, after agreeing to plead guilty to the lesser charge of neglect.

Edwin Munoz, 46, of Union Township had originally faced 20 years in prison on charges of sexual assault and endangering the welfare of a child, Union County Prosecutor Theodore Romankow said.

Munoz instead was sentenced to two years probation with no jail time today by Superior Court Judge Joseph Perfilio, as a supportive line of his relatives watched from the court’s gallery. When asked by the judge if he wished to say anything, Munoz, dressed in a gray suit jacket, quietly declined.

He had been arrested in May 2008 and charged with abusing a girl under age 13 at his home between 2001 and 2004. But today, defense attorney Cathy Waldor said her investigation revealed the two were never alone together and the attack never occurred. The state did not have sufficient evidence to prove its case, she said.

“It’s destroyed his life,” she said of the charges against her client, a factory worker with no criminal record who had been released on $125,000 bail. “The entire family, everybody involved in this case suffered. It was a sad situation.”

Waldor said her client ended up pleading guilty to neglect as part of a deal with prosecutors because he had scolded the alleged victim, causing her to cry, which constitutes emotional distress.

Assistant Prosecutor John Esmerado today declined to comment on the case.